How Microsoft founder Bill Gates mapped out the new internet era back in 1993

Gates and Paul Allen launched computing giant Microsoft 50 years ago. In 1993 he spoke to the BBC about the online innovation that defined the 21st century.

It was thought that when the BBC first aired an interview with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in June 1993 130 Total website. BBC’s venerable science program horizon We were investigating a new “electronic frontier” in an era where information is beginning to redefine our world, its geography and its economy. Gates told the program: “This is information age, and the computer is an information age tool, and the software determines whether all that information can be easily retrieved.” Viewers can send a £2 check and receive a transcript of the program on the post.

The computer industry was already growing faster in history, but the key to future profits was creating portable and user-friendly things. The program asked, “Do you need endless information or should we sell it?” In a world where almost every website list can fit into two aspects of the paper, World Wide Web didn’t even mention it. However, ideas explored in the program often lie far ahead of time.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen in the early days of Microsoft Set goals Of course, every desk has a computer in every home – running all Microsoft products. They first met as children at a private school in Seattle, where they discovered a common love for computers. Both went to university, but they provided microcomputer software, so they dropped out of what is called Microsoft and created it.

Company’s Big break It came in 1980 when Microsoft agreed to create an operating system for a personal computer developed by IBM, one of the world’s leading computer companies at the time. With the stroke of a business genius, Microsoft was allowed to license the operating system from other manufacturers, creating the “IBM compatible” personal computer industry that relies on MS-DOS products. The money had begun I’ll roll in – And until today, it has not stopped yet.

Gates was a serious computer nerd, but Allen was his quirky older brother. Allen worked for Microsoft until 1983, leaving the front line following a blood cancer diagnosis. He recovered to become a successful venture capitalist and held his share of the company, he was a wealth of equipment in the world. His death 2018, 65 years old. He used his enormous fortune to invest in his personal passion and owned both the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team and the Seattle Seahawks NFL team, which won the Super Bowl in 2013.

His departure from Microsoft meant he had more time to complete his guitar moves. Legendary music producer Quincy Jones Magazine interview Allen “sings and plays like Hendrix.” He said: “I went on a trip on his yacht, and he had David Crosby, Joe Walsh, Sean Lennon… and for the last two days, Stevie Wonder came with his band and let Paul play with him – he’s a good guy.” Seattle designs. Pop Culture MuseumWhat he founded was likened to a destroyed guitar and was created by superstar architect Frank Gehry.

Allen has jumped over ships from Microsoft before products such as Windows, Excel, Word, and so on, and has entered homes and offices around the world. By the early 1990s, Gates’ vision for networked computers had skyrocketed sales and profits. But the pair’s early dream of putting a computer running Microsoft software in every home and business was only half-complete. Word processing and spreadsheets were advantageous, but Microsoft’s less was willing to expand to explore the new world they needed. The next step was to bring multimedia into people’s homes and turn personal computers into communication devices. The world of leisure that Gate needed to utilize was a world of leisure that Allen loved so much.

Gates admitted to the BBC in 1993 that “homes will become a difficult frontier to conquer.” However, he was sure Microsoft would succeed. “If you take a time frame like 15 or certainly 20 years, it doesn’t look like today’s computers, but there’s no doubt that the vision of computers in every home will be achieved for sure,” he said.

A year ago, Bruce Springsteen strike They complain about having “57 channels (and notin’on).” The boss’s irony must be Microsoft’s irony Nathan Milbord We talked about the future with up to 1,000 TV channels. He said: “It may sound like a nightmare, but I think it’s great. Imagine what would happen if you only had five bookshops of your favorite.” Described a system similar to today’s streaming services, he spoke about an “online interactive guide that uses computer technology to organize your channels, show them topically, learn the material you want to see, and even show you it on TV in online fashion.”

Myhrvold offered an appetizing glimpse into the future: the world of your fingertips you can order Trendy CD or Prince tickets are instantly available. But what does this mean for personal privacy?

A warning was received from magazine editor Dennis Caruso during the 1993 program Digital Media: “Being able to sit in front of an interactive TV five years ago and be able to push the remote and order something means that information about you is going through the network. That means you know that the person on the other side of that network knows what you’re watching on TV and you can know a lot about you that you don’t want to know.”

Caruso raised issues that resonated with the current debate. Generation AI A model trained by devouring copyrighted materials. She said: “By making information into a commodity, it really changes the nature of how people think about ideas and their work. I’m a trade stock. My inventory is an idea, and when you enter the idea where the idea came from and who originally and who had the one that the napkin was originally drawn, when it was first drawn, it stops the appearance of another person.

She said the information was an incredible item, but it had no value at all unless it could be protected. But how can you protect something that is physically free and can be copied or modified without detection?

“The problem is that solutions are as complicated as the problem itself. Want to lock all the information? Absolutely not? If scientists are unable to freely exchange ideas and information, there is no scientific advancement. [which] It’s music, whether it’s a book, a movie, or something. I think technology is incredible and very powerful, but it’s powerful in both ways, and it’s very important for us all to understand it before we accept it. ”

Although World Wide Web was not featured in the program, it was the first introduction to many viewers of the email or email concept. As Microsoft continued to expand greedily, the company’s Vice President of Human Resources Mike Murray said the email had said “we’d like to create an electronic village.” [which] His words may seem grand now, but back then it was a revolutionary idea that they could quickly communicate with many people on the other side of the world without the need for expensive international calls.

By the end of 1993, the number of websites was 623doubled every three months. By the end of 1994, the figure was 10,022. Microsoft was considered by some commentators slow To acknowledge the potential and growth of the web, but sent by Gates in May 1995. Note He calls a senior staff member entitled “The Internet Tidal Wave” “It’s been called the most important single development since IBM PC was introduced in 1981.” Three months later, Microsoft launched the web portal MSN with the release of Windows 95. Some versions have been controversially bundled with new Internet Explorer browsers.

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